By embedding Axelo’s patented motion-sensory technology into the helmet and/or mouthguard of each football player, Axelo can measure upon impact the frequency, magnitude of force and direction/vector of the immediately occurring contact. After recording, tabulating and comparing the accumulated contact data with current medically-known thresholds of injury producing impacts, an Injury Reduction Data Base (IRDB) can be formulated. Axelo’s technology can then assess the on-going ‘real-time’ impact(s) being made to the head of each athlete as it occurs during play. This information can be immediately transmitted by and through the embedded sensory components. The information is then instantly relayed to the appropriate side-line personnel. Side-line personnel can in ‘real time’ ascertain and/or render, as needed, appropriate first aid to the player.

As safety is always the primary focus of each parent, as well as that of the athletic department, our system will not only assuage fears but enable each auxiliary participant access to readily available information, thereby eliminating the ‘guess work’ of a possible concussion and replacing ‘guess work’ with knowledge of medically based and up-to-date data.

The helmets and/or mouthguards containing Axelo’s embedded patented sensing modules, proprietary processing algorithms and adaptable hardware can be marketed at sites where contact sports are played; including schools/universities, youth camps and recreational centers within the U.S. and abroad.

Sports-related concussions are recognized as a major public health concern. Concussions and their residual long-term effects have been, and are currently, the concern of numerous personnel associated with sports medicine, sports management, head-trauma researchers and from the athletes themselves. Many athletes are witnessing serious current and far-reaching debilitating health complications among their peers. Concussions are forcing early retirement of high-profile professional athletes creating an increased public awareness.

The volume of athletes participating in organized sports at the high school level creates an even greater concern relating to the effects of concussion in young sports participants. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that approximately 300,000 sport-related concussions occur annually within the United States. No estimates were available for world-wide occurrences.

Unfortunately, pronounced consequences of brain trauma may emerge over time. In the hours and days following the initial traumatic event, physiological changes occur that can pose current, as well as serious, far-reaching medical complications. Following the initial contact injury, the metabolic distress renders the brain highly vulnerable; thus greatly increasing the probability of further, more permanent brain injury, even following a lesser impact force. A study by Guskiewcz et.al. revealed that football players who had already experienced a concussion were three times more likely to experience a second concussion during the same sports season. A 2003 NCAA study drew a similar conclusion.

A major cause of concussions is considered to be produced from both linear and rotational accelerations induced by tangential impacts upon the brain. These accelerations cause internal straining deep within the brain. This ‘deep stress’ factor appears to produce a major effect upon, not just the current brain health, but the long- term brain health of the athlete as well. The effects of repeated, but lesser, accelerations on the inside of the brain parallels the effect created by a substantial direct impact; in that, both sides of the outside of the brain are similarly affected.
Axelo proposes to embed movement and impact sensing technology into the protective gear (helmet and mouth guard) worn by the athlete during play. This system will detect magnitude, frequency, location and direction of impacts made to the head, as well as recording the linear and rotational accelerations being and having been received, by multiple impact exposures during game situations. The detection and evaluation of these accelerations can then be used to assess the effects of internal stress on the brain to reveal the causes of concussions occurring deep within the brain.

Initially, Axelo will establish the available concessional impact thresholds upon the brain. Data, currently available to the sports industry, as well as research gathered previously by the automotive industry, NASA and the military relating to head trauma, will be utilized to determine the concessional thresholds.

This initial data will be correlated with Axelo’s technology of gathered linear and rotational accelerations, coupled with impact magnitude, directional and frequency factors, to allow medical practitioners to analyze and study the aforementioned specific impact vectors to evaluate their negative effects on the brain.

This compiled data will serve as the nucleus to produce a sports database of impact vectors and linear and rotational accelerations to yield their associated cumulative physiological effects.
To build the sport’s database, this kinematic data will be incorporated, with related brain concussion data, to evaluate the actual effects of impact vectors on the athlete’s cognitive and motor skills. Axelo will integrate its system to correlate with existing cognitive assessment software packages currently available within the medical community.

Today, visual cues are used during play to determine the possibility of head trauma and subjectively it is decided what treatment, if any, may be necessary. Axelo will produce a wireless version of their system to allow “real-time” data connectivity. Axelo’s telemetry capability will display “ongoing assessment” immediately determining each equipped athlete’s specific risk for potential TBI, as well as any present (or potential long-term future) cognitive effects. This instantaneous (real-time) data will support emergency and pending emergency scenarios involving received “above threshold” head impacts.

This “real-time” data will determine if immediate treatment is required, if the athlete should be temporally sidelined or if he can resume play. This data eliminates the “guess work” of “possible” head trauma.

Axelo will develop their sensing system for biomedical applications by designing hardware and software components easily incorporated into the protective gear.

To additionally mitigate the effects of numerous and concurrent body impacts, Axelo’s technical solution involves a high impact mitigating technology material. Designed and developed by Axelo, the material provides high impact protection by utilizing a ‘spring- like, cushioning single cell material construction.